


The Human Touch

by Cherry



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Is this an android fic?, M/M, Multi, Oddly domestic despite the setting, Set in Earth's future, foot sex!, sim!Levi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-04-08 13:33:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4307010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherry/pseuds/Cherry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin Smith, the best soldier in the Survey Corporation, works hard with his team clearing hostile titans from new colonies to further humanity's expansion. His plan to become a Citizen is on track, when Commander Zackley orders him to beta test a new, uncannily realistic type of sim - model LE6. In the lab, they called him Levi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Human Touch

**Author's Note:**

> I started this one a long time ago, but there's a bit of a robot vibe around at the moment, and I didn't want anyone to think this was copied from the TV show "Humans" which seems to be developing along similar lines, so I thought I'd post it now, before that show finishes. This one will be quite explicit, and there is a fair bit of Levi/Mike as well as Eruri. There might even be some EruriMike - I'm not sure about that yet...

“Erwin,” said Zackley, frowning at the stats displayed on the inside of his visor, “your stress levels aren’t healthy, and your psych score is veering off green. You need some R and R, but your rotation lasts – another three weeks? Is that right?”

“Yes, Sir,” Erwin replied, trying not to let his irritation show. “I’ll be fine. Now we know how to deal with these titans –”

“The titans aren’t going anywhere. _You_ , on the other hand, will find yourself on the next ship back to Earth if you don’t slow the fuck down.”

“I’ll take it easier. Get some more sleep.”

“You haven’t touched your R and R allowance – again. That alone would negatively impact on your psych score, even without these signs of stress. You need a break.”

“I don’t have time to visit brothels, and I dislike purging after drugs or alcohol.”

“Yes, I know. I’ve read your file. But everyone needs some kind of release, Erwin. Your profile suggests sex would be the most effective method for you. Unless you want to develop a hobby, like Dok’s mineral collecting?”

“Nile says he has no interest in using sims,” Erwin said. “I respect that.”

“Everyone uses sims! Nile’s a dinosaur.”

“He’s happy with his family and his work,” Erwin replied firmly. “Not everyone has much of a sex drive. It may be unusual, but it hardly makes him unique. I’ll finish this rotation, then I’ll take some time out.”

“That’s not acceptable Erwin. You’re our most successful colonization officer. The Corporation would never have got this far without you, and even with operations scaled back as they are, we can’t afford to lose you to burnout. I’m assigning you a sim.”

“I don’t want a –”

“It’s non-negotiable. At least try it for the rest of this rotation. All your chores done for you, good meals provided, sex on tap – I can’t see your problem with it. And you’ll be doing the company a favour, too. This is a new kind of sim – completely organic, aside from its core chip. Kenny Ackerman, from Reiss Company R and D, tells me that this model is almost impossible to tell from a real human. The only downside is that you won’t get any choice of skin – they only have one fully functional model ready to go. You’ll be providing the beta test, and getting your R and R at the same time. You’re not exclusively het are you? I think this one’s a male.”

“No – I’m pretty much in the middle of the scale. It’s not the thing’s gender that bothers me. I’m – used to being alone.”

“You’ll still be alone! It’s a sim, not a person. If it freaks you out too much, put it in a cupboard or something. Come on, Erwin, work with me here! If your stress levels don’t come down the medics will enforce leave anyway, and you’ll have a curtailed rotation on your record.”

Erwin sighed. “All right. Just until the end of this rotation.”

“That’s my boy!” Zackley patted Erwin on the back, smiling. “You’ll soon be back to your old self, and ready to conquer the rest of the titans for us. That’s all I’m after, Erwin.”

 

When he got back to his quarters that evening, Erwin was surprised to find his hallway had been rearranged so that the shoe-store was further from the door, which had always tended to bang against it if opened too fast, and the rug, which appeared brighter than he remembered, had been more symmetrically placed. When he opened the shoe-store, he found his spare boots, running shoes, and dress shoes had all been immaculately cleaned, and positioned on the rack in their correct pairs, the ones he wore most frequently at the top.

Unsure whether to feel pleased or irritated, he went into the living room, and wasn’t surprised to find the sim sitting on the couch, back straight but head bowed in an attitude of quiet contemplation.

“Sim?” he asked, his mixed feelings about the work it had apparently done making his tone a little sharp.

“Yes, Sir,” the sim answered, lifting its head and looking at him. Erwin half expected to hear the soft whir of gears, but not even ordinary sims had those anymore, and he remembered what Zackley had said about this one being almost entirely organic. He studied the sim, surprised by the skin R and D had chosen. It had the appearance of a small, fine-featured male, with pale skin, black hair cut into the same short style most of the soldiers favoured, but a little longer on top, and a face that would have been almost sweet if it weren’t for the frown lines between its straight, dark brows. It really did look very human, Erwin had to admit - if only because no one would have thought to design such an unusual and annoyed-looking sim.

“Introduce yourself,” Erwin said.

“Yes, Sir. I am Levi.”

“Levi? I thought sims were usually referred to by letters and numbers? I know some people give them names, but I didn’t know they came with one.”

“I’m LE6,” the sim amended. “In the lab, they called me Levi. You can change it if you want.” Erwin was somewhat taken aback by the sim’s tone, which was, to his ears, bordering on insolent, and something in his – _its_ – expression that, if he hadn’t known better, Erwin might have thought was impatience, or even resentment. But, of course, however realistic the sim might appear, such nuances of tone and feeling were impossible. It might be a biological machine in this case, but it was still essentially a sophisticated computer in a bio-engineered shell, run by a complex programme.

“Levi will do,” Erwin told it. “It’s not a name I dislike. Stand up.”

The sim obeyed.

“Levi,” murmured Erwin to himself, moving closer, thinking it strange that such a randomly chosen skin should appeal so forcefully to him. He found himself wondering what it would be like to fuck Levi. Of course, that was the main reason Zackley had given him a sim – to provide stress relief - since Erwin had little time, or, although he hadn’t confessed as much to Zackley, inclination, to visit the brothels back at base, where the standard variety of beautiful sims of all gender and racial types would provide any kind of sexual service he could imagine, as well as all those offered in the comprehensive menus – many of which he would never have dreamed of on his own.

Erwin knew that his sexual proclivities would be considered strange by most of his friends and acquaintances, which was the main reason he tended to relieve such tensions with his own hand, rather than making use of the sims, whose predictable responses and flawless bodies always left him feeling faintly depressed. Although there were still people, such as Nile Dawk, who preferred abstinence to using sims, most civilized Citizens had long since abandoned sex with other humans in favour of their artificial substitutes. A relationship, it was generally agreed, ought to be a meeting of _minds_ , not an animal transaction. What sexual relationship could ever be entirely free of difficulties, after all? Complicated power imbalances – misunderstandings – the infliction of pain, deliberately or by mistake… No such problems occurred when you split your mind from your animal desires. Humans were partners, colleagues, friends; sims were domestic labourers and fulfillers of sexual needs. Citizens’ children were usually conceived artificially; the genetic screening required for all legitimate births was much more easily performed in vitro anyway, although one occasionally heard of parents who preferred to go about things the old-fashioned way - but they were considered oddities; usually badly socialised individuals on the fringes of proper society, or fashionable eccentrics.

Natural conception was much more common among the Voters, of course, but they always trailed a few decades behind the Citizens when it came to social progress. Like most of his colleagues, Erwin himself had been conceived naturally, but if he ever had the opportunity to start a family he knew that he would opt for the more civilized option, if only because he aimed at winning citizenship one day. Erwin had never asked Nile how his children had been conceived, but he’d wondered.

And then there were the stories about explorers, or people in remote communities whose sims had malfunctioned, and who had resorted to each other... Every time Erwin heard such a tale he remained silent in the face of the disgust of the majority, wondering why the idea of sex with another real human gave him such a secret thrill. Sometimes he would even look at his fellow soldiers, searching for the flaws that marked them as human – the mole on the back of Hange’s neck that for some reason she’d never had removed, or the fine sandy hairs that grew on Mike’s shoulders - and he’d feel a jolt of desire, wondering what it would feel like to kiss, to touch –

This sim – this _Levi_ – looked so unbearably human…

“Strip,” Erwin ordered roughly, guilt and desire unsettling him. “I want to see what kind of body they gave you.”

Levi looked at him. “How do you want me to strip?” he asked. “Should I put on a show, or do you mean – functionally?”

“No – no show. Just take your clothes off.”

“Yes, Sir.”

For some reason the sim’s use of the title irritated Erwin. “You don’t have to call me _Sir_. I get enough of that from the soldiers under my command. You can call me Erwin.”

“Okay,” Levi said, not shrugging, but managing to sound as though he’d like to. Again Erwin was taken by surprise. Most sims would have responded to such an order by immediately using the name they’d been given. _Yes, Erwin_ , was what he’d expected.

Levi began to strip off his clothes, folding them with a mechanical precision and setting them on the couch beside him. Erwin watched as he removed his simply designed cream-coloured sweater and close fitting black trousers, leaving him naked except for what looked like army-issue grey shorts and socks. Erwin swallowed as he contemplated Levi’s beautifully proportioned, surprisingly muscular body. As he sat to remove his socks Levi looked up at Erwin through the soft fall of his black hair, and Erwin was taken by surprise by the way the sight immediately aroused him. Levi pulled off his socks with casual grace, and Erwin found his eyes drawn to the high insteps of the sim’s small, long-toed feet. He’d never taken any particular notice of feet in a sexual context before, but Levi’s feet were beautiful. Erwin’s cock swelled as he imagined Levi in dressed in the omni-directional manoeuvring gear the corporation had developed to fight the titans, the leather straps crossing under those perfect arches.

Levi rolled his socks neatly together and set them to one side of his folded sweater and trousers. He stood to remove his underwear, but on a sudden whim, Erwin stopped him.

“That’s enough for now. Let me look at you.”

Levi straightened his spine and stood still for Erwin’s inspection, gazing ahead. Erwin walked around him, astonished by now real he looked. His skin was smooth and almost flawless, but Erwin experienced another little shock of desire as he noticed a small dark mole just below his right shoulder blade, and another paler one on his collarbone. There were even a few sparse black hairs on his chest. Erwin stopped and stared at them. “Why did they give you those, I wonder?” he said aloud.

Levi followed the direction of his gaze. “I can remove them if they bother you.”

“No,” said Erwin, just a fraction too quickly. “No, it’s fine. I was only wondering why they would design in something most people _would_ remove.” He ran his fingers lightly over Levi’s chest, marvelling at the way goose bumps rose on the skin beneath his touch. He rubbed his thumb over one of Levi’s small, dark nipples, pleased when it hardened at the stimulation.

“You’re amazingly realistic,” Erwin said, walking to stand behind Levi again, putting his hands on the sim’s shoulders. He stroked his palms down over the firm muscles of Levi’s upper arms. “Did they make you with such excellent muscle tone, or did you have to exercise?”

“I don’t remember how I was made,” Levi replied. “But I did have to exercise. There was a lot of training.”

“Hm.” Erwin let his hands rest on Levi’s shoulders and leaned closer, breathing in the fresh scent of his hair. “Your design is very pleasing,” he said. “But I wonder why they made you so short?”

Beneath his hands, he felt the sim’s shoulders stiffen slightly, for all the world as if it were offended.

“I wonder why they made _you_ so tall?” Levi retorted.

For a moment Erwin felt angry; he’d never experienced a sim talking back to him before. But then he recalled that this one was experimental and designed to mimic human behaviour. His anger vanished, and he found himself smiling at the thought of a sim being offended by a perceived slight. “I didn’t mean it as an insult,” he explained. “It suits you. I supposed I’m used to standard models. It’s been a long time since I used a sim. I’ve seen the ads – I know they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes these days. One of my lieutenants, Keiji, was telling me about a new kind he experienced at a brothel on our operations base on Kronos VII. Morphing tech – a sim that can be instantly reprogrammed to your own preferred designs so you don’t need to buy more than one. I don’t suppose you morph, do you?”

“That would defeat the object,” Levi replied, not sounding at all mollified by Erwin’s explanation. “I’m supposed to mimic a human, and humans don’t morph.”

“You look very human. You sound human, too. If I met you without knowing what you are, I’d never guess you were a sim.”

Levi shivered suddenly. “Do you want sex, Erwin?” he asked abruptly. “If you don’t, can I get dressed? This apartment is colder than the lab.”

Erwin was surprised that the Sim had been designed to be so sensitive to changes in temperature, but he supposed it was all part of the attempt to make it as realistically human as possible. He hesitated over Levi’s first question. Erwin _did_ want sex – Levi was becoming more desirable to him with every human trait he displayed – but something held him back. Perhaps the sim was _too_ human? A lifetime of social conditioning had taught Erwin that to want another human being physically was distasteful - more Voter than Citizen - and although he knew that Levi was only a sim, the idea of ordering him to perform any kind of sex act after witnessing such human reactions was faintly repellent, despite the desire he couldn’t help feeling. Erwin almost smiled at the thought that he would have to get used to Levi first – perhaps have dinner with him, as though he were a human he wanted to get to know personally, instead of a simulation designed to provide sexual pleasure.

“You can get dressed,” he said. “I’ve hardly stopped today – I need to eat before anything else.”

Levi pulled on his trousers and sweater, but hesitated when it came to the socks. “I’ve worn these all day,” he said. “Can I change them?”

“Do they need changing? You seem very clean. You _smell_ very clean.”

“I don’t like putting socks back on when I’ve taken them off,” Levi said, looking at the floor. Erwin wasn’t sure whether to feel exasperated or amused by the trouble the designers had taken to give the sim human foibles.

“Do you have a change of clothes?” he asked.

“Yes. I cleared a shelf in your wardrobe. I have ten pairs of socks.”

“All the same?” Erwin asked.

“Yes,” Levi replied, his expression serious.

“All right,” Erwin said, “go and fetch a clean pair. But don’t put them on. I’ll do that.”

Levi nodded, unsmiling, and headed in the direction of Erwin’s bedroom. Erwin watched him go, still torn between amusement and irritation at the sim’s odd quirks. He wondered what the Reiss Company R and D team was hoping to achieve. Was this merely an experiment to see just how close to a real human being they could make a sim appear to be? Or were they thinking of producing sims like Levi for the mass market?

While he waited for Levi, Erwin told the walls to switch to forest, which he always found relaxing after a tiring day on duty. Instantly he was surrounded by projections of trees and the sound of a soft wind blowing, augmented by occasional bird song, and the far-off murmur of running water. Levi returned, a clean pair of socks in one hand, and stopped in the doorway, his eyes widening in a convincing simulation of wonder at the scene before him. “What is it?” he asked.

“It’s a forest. Taken near my home, on Earth. When I’m on leave, I go walking there.”

“I know _trees_ ,” Levi said, his face a picture of concentration, like a child trying to remember a difficult lesson. “I know what a forest is. But I’ve never seen so many trees. I didn’t know they were that big.”

A bird flitted across the room above Levi’s head, and he ducked instinctively. Erwin laughed. “It’s a projection. Just light.”

“That was a bird?” Levi said.

“Yes.”

“I know _bird_. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real one.”

“That isn’t a real one. I told you – it’s just light.”

Levi nodded, as though Erwin were stating the obvious. “I know. But – I like how they move. Wings… If I _could_ morph, I’d morph wings.”

Erwin looked at him, somewhat unsettled. Sims were usually programmed to make suggestions if required, but he’d never heard one express a personal preference based on imagination before.

“When we go to Earth, will you take me to this forest?” Levi asked.

“Oh – no – you’re only on loan to me. R and D wanted a beta tester, and my commander thought I needed a sim. In three weeks, I go on leave, and you go back to the lab.”

Levi’s expression remained generally impassive, but his eyes somehow managed to convey dismayed disappointment. Erwin had never seen such an expression in a sim before. It made something tighten in his chest – he felt almost guilty, as though a sim could be genuinely upset.

“I see,” Levi said. “I misunderstood. I thought you were my mentor.”

“It seems neither of us has been given enough information about this situation,” Erwin said. “Why were you expecting me to be a mentor?”

“As a sim my responses will necessarily be awkward at first - lacking in authenticity. I understood that I was to learn appropriate behaviour from a human mentor. I thought you were the one.”

“Think of this as a trial run, then,” Erwin replied. “As will I. I’ve never had a live-in sim before – only standard cleaning bots. I suppose this will be a new experience for both of us.”

Levi said nothing, but his expression was eloquent of dissatisfaction. Erwin suppressed a smile. For a sim, Levi really was endearingly grumpy. “What’s wrong?” Erwin asked, as an experiment.

“I wanted you to be the one,” Levi replied immediately.

Erwin couldn’t help feeling a little flattered by that, even though he knew it was only a programmed response.

“We’ll make the most of the time we have,” he said. “Come here. Sit by me.”

Levi did as he was told, taking a seat on the couch next to Erwin, although his eyes were still on the trees, watching for another bird.

“I recorded for a standard hour,” Erwin told him. “That bird won’t be back until the file loops.”

“Can’t you reverse it?”

Erwin sighed. “All right. Once. Then I need to eat.” He raised his voice slightly. “Reverse…. Stop.”

There was a subtle shift in the patterns of moving leaves, light and shade. Erwin pointed to the wall to their left, and Levi turned his head, catching sight of the small blue bird just before it swooped over the room again to the trees on the other side. Erwin watched the sim’s eyes following the bird’s flight. Levi watched the bird landing on a branch where it sat preening for a few moments, before flying off into the trees, out of sight.

“Happy?” Erwin asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Levi replied, his shoulders, which had been tensed as if with excitement, relaxing. Erwin realised that the sim was still holding the clean pair of socks in its left hand. “You’d better put those on, if you’re cold,” he said, feeling rather ashamed, now, of the lust he’d felt earlier.

“Didn’t _you_ want to put them on me, Erwin?” Levi asked, and something in the way he said Erwin’s name brought the desire flooding back with surprising force. Although he felt foolish doing it, Erwin took the socks from Levi’s hand. Levi watched his face intently, not smiling, but gazing at him with a solemn intensity. Without being told what to do, Levi turned ninety degrees, and drew up his knees so that his feet were on the couch, his toes resting against Erwin’s thigh. Then he raised his left foot and placed it gently on top of Erwin’s leg, tilting the instep towards Erwin. Erwin swallowed. The socks dropped from his hand onto the couch beside him. Levi waited. Erwin stroked his index finger down over the graceful curve of the front of Levi’s foot, along his toes, and back up the sole. Levi shivered as the light touch of Erwin’s finger tickled his instep.

“You like that?” Erwin asked.

“Yes,” Levi said, sounding a little breathless.

“You have beautiful feet,” Erwin said.

“You have a fetish?” Levi asked. “You could buy me heels…”

“No, I don’t have a fetish. I never thought about it before today. You just have beautiful feet.”

Levi lifted his right foot and placed it much further up Erwin’s thigh, his toes mere millimeters from Erwin’s crotch. Erwin’s breath caught, and he shifted involuntarily, his hips rising off the couch slightly, his cock stiffening. Levi was watching him carefully, and Erwin imagined he could read a kind of challenge in the sim’s grey eyes. Levi’s toes curled into the muscle of Erwin’s upper thigh. Levi held Erwin’s gaze as he slid his right foot the last few millimeters and pressed it against the already considerable bulge in Erwin’s trousers.

Erwin surprised himself with the soft sound that escaped him as Levi’s foot pushed more firmly against his cock. Levi tilted his head slightly to one side, his expression hard to read. “You need to eat now?” Levi asked. “Or should I continue?”

Was the sim _teasing_ him, Erwin wondered? He’d never met a sim capable of acting in such a way – usually they waited for orders, or proceeded according to a pre-agreed menu - but, as was becoming increasingly apparent with every new interaction, Levi was no ordinary sim.

“Continue,” Erwin said, attempting to sound authoritative. Levi was rubbing his foot up and down Erwin’s cock now, using his toes to feel the shape of it through the fabric of his trousers. Erwin gave in to the sensation, reminding himself that this was, after all, why Zackley had given him a sim. It had been far too long since he’d been touched like this.

Levi nudged the tab of Erwin’s zip with his big toe, and raised his eyebrows fractionally. Erwin thought that he’d never seen a face capable of conveying such nuanced meanings with so little movement. He was seized by an impulse to kiss Levi, but instantly rejected the idea as too embarrassingly intimate. He had never kissed a sim. The thought of it had always repelled him before, and the fact that it had come into his mind so naturally with Levi was disturbing. Instead, he accepted Levi’s silent suggestion, and unzipped his fly, pushing down his underwear, releasing his fully hard cock.

“Fuck, you’re big,” Levi said.

That sounded more like a usual sex sim response, Erwin thought, except that Levi’s intonation was flatter than he would have expected – more a statement of fact than a compliment. Instead of commenting on that, Erwin chose to focus on the sim’s surprising use of profanity, out of genuine interest, but also in an attempt to distract himself from just how close he already was to losing control as Levi pressed the sole of his foot against his shaft – a thrilling shock of skin on skin.

“I – hah – I didn’t know sims were programmed to swear without specific orders,” Erwin managed.

“I wasn’t _programmed_ exactly. They call it conditioning. You can give me a list of prohibited words, if you want to.”

“No, I don’t mind it. It’s – Ah!” Erwin forgot the end of his sentence as Levi’s big toe rubbed delicately against his frenulum.

“This angle’s awkward,” Levi murmured under his breath, frowning. “Hold on…” Erwin almost protested at the removal of the wonderful pressure of Levi’s foot from his cock, but before he could say anything, Levi was lying back propped on his elbows on the rug in front of the couch, legs raised so that his feet rested on Erwin’s thighs. He lifted his right foot and began to rub it against Erwin’s cock again, more insistently this time. Erwin struggled not to moan aloud. Levi’s other foot slid up the inside of his thigh, pressing gently against Erwin’s balls. This time Erwin couldn’t hold back a soft groan.

“Hold my feet,” Levi said.

Erwin knew he ought to feel annoyed that a sim was giving him orders that hadn’t been agreed on in advance, but he understood what Levi intended, and the idea of thrusting between the joined arches of Levi’s perfect feet was suddenly irresistible to him. He took Levi’s feet in his hands, stroking his thumbs over the soft, uncalloused skin. Levi nodded as Erwin pressed the sides of his feet together gently, and pushed his cock between his high arches.

“Yeah,” Levi said, with apparent approval. “Yeah – like that.”

Erwin’s hips lifted off the couch as he started to thrust. He wasn’t sure how this had happened – he’d intended to eat dinner and consider his options before deciding whether or not to engage in any kind of sexual activity with the sim – and now –

“That’s good,” Levi murmured, his eyes on the head of Erwin’s cock moving with increasing urgency between his feet. Erwin felt suddenly hot, the realisation of what he was doing filling him with a mix of lust and embarrassment. He hadn’t been lying to Levi – he really didn’t have a fetish for this kind of thing – and yet he couldn’t remember when he’d last experienced anything so powerfully erotic. Levi raised his eyes to Erwin’s. Whether it was a deliberately provocative act or not Erwin couldn’t tell, but when Levi ran his tongue over his lower lip, Erwin’s mind conjured the image of himself releasing Levi’s feet, moving to straddle his chest there on the carpet, pushing his cock into Levi’s mouth –

The thought was too much. Erwin lost control with a breathy groan, his cum pulsing thickly over the soles of Levi’s feet. Levi blinked.

“Huh. You haven’t done this for a while, have you?” he asked, using his toe to wipe a smear of cum from his ankle before it could drip onto his trousers. His mouth quirked in a fleeting expression of annoyance; even disgust, Erwin thought.

“It’s been a long time,” he agreed, his hands still holding Levi’s feet awkwardly. The sim watched him, the lines between his brows deepening in apparent irritation.

“Um – I supposed I’d better -” Erwin began.

“Yeah – if you don’t want cum on your carpet,” Levi interrupted. “The wipes are in the second drawer, left of the sink.”

“No – they’re –”

“I reorganized. Go.”

Erwin let go of Levi’s feet. Levi held them in the air, still resting back on his elbows, while Erwin stood up, refastened his trousers, and went to the kitchen. He returned a few seconds later with a packet of antibacterial wipes and a hand towel. He took a wipe out of the pack, and went to clean Levi’s feet. The sim’s eyes widened. “I can –”

“I don’t mind,” Erwin said.

“But –”

“I’ll do it.”

Levi watched while Erwin carefully wiped both his feet clean. Erwin couldn’t tell what the sim was thinking – if he was thinking anything. He dried Levi’s feet with the towel, retrieved the socks from the side of the couch, and rolled them onto Levi’s feet one at a time. Levi nodded when the task was done. “Thank you.”

“It’s – my pleasure,” Erwin found himself saying.

Levi’s lips quirked in what seemed to be the closest he got to a smile. “Well - that’s what I’m here for.” It wasn’t until the sim got to his feet that Erwin noticed the unmistakable bulge in his trousers, and realised that Levi was hard. He wondered whether to say anything - whether to offer to reciprocate in some way. It was tempting – but he really did need to eat, and it wasn’t as though a sim had any desires beyond fulfilling its user’s orders. At least, that was the case for a normal sim. But then, normal sims didn’t initiate sex, either – and wasn’t that what Levi had done? Or had he merely been responding to Erwin’s original intention of putting his socks on? What had happened between them was certainly more subtle than the kinds of interactions between a sim and a user that Erwin was used to.

Levi picked up the discarded wipes and the towel. Erwin followed him into the kitchen, where he disposed of the wipes in the waste chute, and put the towel into the steriliser. Then he washed his hands with such thoroughness that Erwin wondered whether he should feel insulted, but he found himself distracted by the movement of Levi’s back muscles under the fine knit of his sweater. Erwin wondered whether the sim was still hard, and fought back a temptation to embrace Levi from behind. He imagined pressing himself against Levi, reaching around to find out whether he was still aroused… Erwin’s cock woke again at the thought.

“You have fuck all in your store cupboard,” Levi said, turning to face him. “What do you live on?”

“I don’t eat here much. I usually go to the mess with the others.”

“But you haven’t eaten tonight?”

“No.”

“Tch. Looks like it’s couscous or pasta.”

“What do you suggest?”

“There’s some kind of poultry in the freezer. I could do you a kind of tagine in half an hour, with the spices you have. It should cook for a lot longer, but –”

“That sounds good,” Erwin said. “I think it’s maijin – the poultry in the freezer. They’re big birds native to this planet – Hange – my science officer – says they’re genetically similar to chickens.”

“Okay.”

Levi took a pan from the drawer beneath the hob and added oil to it. He took the one sprouting onion from the larder and placed it onto a chopping board with a slight grimace.

“It’s a bit old,” Erwin commented apologetically.

“It was tired of waiting for you to use it. I think it was trying to grow its way to freedom,” Levi said, taking a knife from the block and starting to chop what he could salvage of the onion. Erwin laughed, surprised. It seemed an odd, quirky thing for a sim to say, especially delivered in Levi’s rather flat manner.

“Can I help?” Erwin asked.

Levi glanced at him over his shoulder. “Do you want to?”

“Yes. It’s been a while since I bothered to cook.”

Levi nodded. “I’ll need turmeric, cumin, coriander and paprika.”

“I’m not sure if I –”

“Yes, you have. And that resealed pack of dried apricots.”

Erwin opened the larder and saw that Levi hadn’t been joking about reorganising. The herbs and spices, which Erwin hardly ever used, had been arranged alphabetically, and the tinned goods stored in tidy rows according to kind. The half-used bag of apricots stood apart, defying categorisation. Erwin had forgotten its existence.

Erwin placed all the ingredients on the counter next to Levi, and watched as he added the spices to the sizzling onion. Levi took the poultry from the freezer, placed it into the defroster for ten seconds, then cubed it neatly and added it to the pan, followed by boiling water and chopped apricots.

“This is going to be a bit thin,” Levi said. “It could do with lemon juice, and maybe some pulses or tomatoes. How do you get supplies here?”

“There’s a store on the base,” Erwin replied. “I’ll set you up for credit – you can go shopping tomorrow.”

“Do you want me to eat with you?” Levi asked, “Or should I consume rations?”

Erwin was taken aback by the question. “Oh – I didn’t realise… You need to eat?”

Levi actually sighed in exasperation. “I’m supposed to be _exactly_ like a human,” he said in a tone that seemed to query Erwin’s basic intelligence. “My biology is the same as yours. I derive energy from food. The only question is whether you want me to eat the same food as you, which will be more expensive, or standard army rations, which will maintain my functioning equally effectively.”

Erwin hesitated. It seemed churlish not to allow Levi to share the food he was preparing, but what would be the point in wasting money on a sim?

“Well – eat with me tonight, at least,” he said. An alarming thought struck him. “So – you process food in the same way as humans?”

“Yes,” Levi said. “I need to shit, if that’s what you’re asking. And piss. And sleep. All my bodily functions are designed to be just like a human.”

“But you’re a sex sim,” Erwin said. “Surely you self-lubricate?”

“No. I’m not _only_ a sex sim. And I don’t do anything a normal human doesn’t do. Does that concern you?”

“I – don’t –” The truth was it _did_ concern Erwin, although not in the way Levi probably expected it to. The fact that Levi’s sexual function was apparently realistically human sent a guilty thrill through Erwin. But the idea of sharing a bathroom – that seemed uncomfortably personal. Even spouses usually had their own rooms and hygiene facilities. Erwin remembered Zackley’s advice about the sim; _if it freaks you out too much put it in a cupboard or something_. That was clearly impossible. Where was Levi going to sleep? On the couch, Erwin supposed – but he had no spare bedding, and Levi seemed sensitive to the cold.

“I didn’t expect you to be quite so human,” Erwin said at last. “But – we’ll see how it goes.”

Levi stirred the pot on the hob, but something in the set of his shoulders conveyed anxiety to Erwin. Was that possible?

“If it doesn’t go well, will you send me back to the lab?” Levi asked, his tone neutral, but strain still apparent in his body.

“No,” Erwin replied, after a moment’s thought. “No – it’s only for three weeks. It will be an interesting experiment anyway.

Levi nodded, his shoulders relaxing.

“Dinner smells good,” Erwin said, glad of the release of the uneasy tension he’d sensed.

Levi turned down the heat. “Now it needs to cook for as long as you can stand to wait and I need to clean up this mess.” He gestured towards the knife and chopping board, which looked practically unused, and the four jars of spice, carefully closed and placed in a row on the pristine counter.

Erwin took the spice jars and replaced them in their correct positions in the larder. Levi washed the board and the knife under the antibac spray in the sink and passed them through the drier, before replacing them in the appropriate drawers.

Erwin’s earlier impulse returned forcefully, and this time he acted on it, moving to stand behind Levi, who froze in the act of closing the cutlery drawer as Erwin’s hand came to rest on his waist.  
“I have to say, I’m quite impressed with you so far,” Erwin told Levi, running his hand down to the sim’s hip and pulling him back against his body.

There was a brief pause before Levi replied, “Thank you, Erwin. I’m glad you approve. What can I do for you, now?”

That was a standard sim response, and Erwin found it oddly jarring coming from Levi’s mouth. Despite the unexpected, interested stirring of his cock so soon after his last orgasm, Erwin made himself take a step back. He’d already allowed himself to behave in an uncharacteristically uncontrolled manner – to do so again even before eating would be to show uncivilized, overly sexual impulses. If Levi were human, he would be disgusted by such lack of self-discipline.

An insidious part of Erwin’s mind whispered that Levi was _not_ human, and that his entire purpose was to fulfil whatever role Erwin wanted him to, without judgement. But perhaps that assumption was false? _Ordinary_ sims were incapable of judging human actions – they would perform any act, no matter how depraved, without comment or criticism, unless they were following a pre-agreed script – but Levi had already shown some entirely un-sim-like preferences: his interest in the bird and the idea of flight; his desire to be clean; that faint expression of distaste at Erwin’s semen on his skin…

Levi turned to face Erwin. “We could go to the bedroom. Your responses earlier suggested a sexual interest in my mouth. I could suck you off, while we wait for dinner to cook.”

Erwin’s desire flared again at Levi’s words, but he made himself resist. “We’ll explore a few ideas after dinner. That’s not the only reason you’re here. As you pointed out yourself, you’re not _only_ a sex sim.”

“I can remain in the kitchen, if you want to be alone.”

“No – that’s fine. Come through to the sitting room. I’d like to know more about you.”

Levi followed Erwin back into the living area, his eyes going instantly to the images of trees projected by the walls. “Twenty-nine minutes, fourteen seconds until the bird reappears,” he said.

“What is it that you like so much about the bird?” Erwin asked, curious. “Is it just the way it flies?”

“I don’t know. I do like the idea of flight. It seems so – free. But also the colour. That iridescent blue. And the speed – a flash of motion. I like those things.”

Erwin took a seat on the couch and gestured for Levi to do the same. “So, what determines your likes and dislikes?”

Levi shook his head, frowning. “I don’t have access to that information. The details of my conditioning are copyright protected by the Reiss Company. It must be some kind of algorithm I suppose. Perhaps I like a random selection of the things I encounter?”

“Hm.” Erwin looked thoughtful. “So – if I asked you your favourite colour?”

“I think – that blue. The blue of the bird.”

“Least favourite colour?”

“White,” Levi replied instantly.

“Why?”

“Everything in the lab was white.”

“And you didn’t enjoy being in the lab?”

“I –” Levi hesitated in a very human fashion. “I don’t know,” he replied after a long pause. “I don’t know why I wouldn’t like it, but I… I think I like it better here. I suppose I’m conditioned to like my user’s home.”

Erwin felt uneasy at the thought of being Levi’s ‘user’, although that was how the relationship between sims and humans was always defined. A silence followed which threatened to turn uncomfortable. Erwin searched for a topic that might interest the sim.

“Do you like sports?” was the best he could come up with.

“I know about them – names, rules, popular teams. Football, volleyball and wallball are the three most popular sports played on Earth. I’ve seen examples of them all.”

“And do you like any of them?”

“I don’t have any feelings about them yet. I like gymnastics. I had to do a lot of training for strength and flexibility. Do you like sports, Erwin?”

“I follow wallball. Used to play. The Trost Tigers are my team.”

“Trost. Earth. A Voter city, south of Ehrmich.”

“Yes.”

“The Trost Tigers lost their last five games. Made it to the Premiership ten years ago, and were relegated the following year.”

Erwin grimaced. “Yes – we haven’t done well this season. But since Flegel Reeves took over as manager we’ve come a long way. This bad run will end soon, I’m sure.”

“Statistically, the odds are with the Tigers in their next game.”

“Really? That’s good to know.”

“The Strikers are down a winger, since Barton was injured.”

“You’re right. How do you access all this information?”

“As long as I’m in connected space I can access any unencrypted data.”

“That’s useful! Hardly human though.”

“No,” Levi agreed. “Access to data was deemed necessary to make up for my lack of human experience. If my user wants me to appear more human, I can conceal my knowledge, or limit the amount I share.”

Erwin was intrigued. “Say I wanted you to do that – how would you reply to my statement: ‘the Trost Tigers are my team’?”

Levi frowned a little as if trying to remember something. “Trost… That’s on North Earth – south of the Inner Wall, isn’t it?”

Erwin laughed. “Good – very convincing. But I’m happy for you to use available data. I’d forgotten that Barton was injured.”

“One thing I don’t understand,” Levi said after a moment, “is why people attach themselves to these teams. The team names may be local, but now that advertising and sponsorship are the main sources of finance, players are bought and sold from anywhere. The teams with the most credit almost always do the best in the competitions. So why support one more than another? Why not support which ever team has the most backers in any season?”

Erwin shook his head. “It’s about loyalty. The players may change, but the _team_ is what you support. The Tigers are my team – always have been since I was a kid. I used to go to games with my dad.”

“I still don’t get it.” Levi frowned, clearly confused. “How is a team different from its players? The players _are_ the team.”

“No. It’s not that simple. The team is more than that – it’s also the manager, the support staff, the fans – especially the fans. It’s – it all comes together to make the whole _idea_ of the team. Even the image of the tiger itself.”

“Tigers were big cats. The last tiger to be born in the wild died in 2058. There are still Interior parks with cloned examples.”

“That’s right. They’re beautiful animals.”

“Dangerous to humans.”

“Yes – but left alone in large enough habitats, they can thrive peacefully.”

“But they’re predators. Carnivores.”

“That’s true. But in a balanced system life can continue indefinitely. Look at the way Earth is structured now. The threat of overpopulation was removed when we developed the drives to reach new habitable planets, and now Earth is peaceful and in balance. For the most part.”

Levi tensed strangely, as though the subject made him uncomfortable.

“Of course there are still out-wallers,” Erwin sighed. “But not much can be done about them. If people refuse to be helped –”

“That’s – I don’t like that topic,” Levi stated.

Erwin looked at him, surprised. The sim’s expression was odd. A strange flush had appeared on his usually pale cheeks.

“Are you okay? Levi?”

“Yes. I don’t know what happened, but - I don’t want to talk about that subject. Please can we talk about something else?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know! I just – I don’t like it. Please, Erwin –”

“- Okay! It’s not a problem. But such a violent response – that’s a bit strange.”

“Perhaps it’s a conditioned dislike? But out-wa – those people –” Levi shuddered. “So _filthy_. That people choose to live like that. I _hate_ it. The thought of it –”

“Calm down, Levi. We won’t talk about it again. I should report it, though – I’m supposed to give Kenny Ackerman feedback. Even if this is a conditioned aversion, it seems a bit too extreme for a sim. Sims are supposed to improve people’s lives, not make them feel uncomfortable.”

Levi stared at Erwin, apparently stricken. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. Will you send me back to the lab now?”

Erwin considered. He wanted Levi, there was no question about that. But the sim’s outburst had shocked him. Was this sim completely safe?”

“I don’t want to send you back,” he replied. “But I won’t have a dangerous product in my home. Are your safety protocols the same as a standard sim’s?”

“Yes, exactly the same.”

“I see.”

“I’d like to stay. I like it better here than in the lab.”

“I’d like to keep you. But I’d better contact the lab, just in case. Wait here.”

Erwin went into the kitchen, and called the research and development lab, not really expecting an answer so late in the day. But Kenny Ackerman answered immediately, his gaunt face faintly concerned.

“Commander Smith. Is this about the sim?”

“Yes. We were discussing out-wallers, and he became very agitated, expressing intense dislike of the topic. Is he quite stable?”

“It’s a sim. All its safety protocols are standard. The reaction was probably just an unfortunately applied algorithm. Levi is designed to express likes and dislikes – a very small proportion of those will be extreme, exactly as a real person’s would be. You just happened to get one now – they shouldn’t occur more than once or twice a year on average. It’s quite safe to ignore it. How’re things going otherwise?”

Erwin had no intention of going into detail about his sexual responses to the sim, so he only replied, “Fine so far. He seems to be a good cook.”

“That’s good. Oh – and don’t worry if you see it taking a pill. It has to take one hormone capsule every night to regulate its sleep patterns. It’s a small issue we haven’t quite ironed out yet.”

“I see. What happens if he fails to take it?”

“Nothing extreme. It might experience some confusion, some memory lapses. Even experience human-style dreams. Nothing dangerous. But there’s no reason it should forget. It has a reminder set.”

Erwin was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the way Ackerman kept referring to Levi as _it_.

“And you’re sure he’s safe?”

“Absolutely.”

“All right then. Thank you.”

“Thank you for the feedback. Please contact the lab immediately if you have any further concerns.”

“I will. Good night.”

Erwin returned to the living area reassured. He felt oddly moved, though, when Levi turned anxiously to look at him as soon as he entered the room.

“Can I stay?”

“Yes, Levi. You can stay.”

It was the first time Erwin had seen Levi give a proper smile, and he felt an answering expression on his own lips.

“I won’t say anything weird again,” Levi promised.

“It’s okay. You can say what you like. I just wasn’t expecting a sim to express a feeling so vehemently, but apparently it’s all part of your conditioning. Let’s go and see how the dinner’s getting on, shall we?”

 

Dinner was surprisingly tasty considering the restricted variety and age of the ingredients. Erwin finished his second helping, and watched as Levi cleared away the plates, enjoying the graceful movement of his neat form.

“That was very good, Levi. I’ll have to watch my weight, with you to cook for me.”

“I’ll make sure your meals are nutritionally balanced,” Levi replied, sanitising the plates and cutlery, drying them and putting them away.

“I’d like to introduce you to my friends, Mike, Hange, Moblit, and Nile,” Erwin said, as Levi rejoined him at the table. “If I transfer you credit to go shopping tomorrow, will you think of a suitable menu for a dinner party? Nothing showy – just good food, like this.”

“Yes, I can do that,” Levi replied. “What do you do in the day?”

“When I’m on duty, I coordinate the drone battles against the titans. In extreme circumstances I have to get involved in the fighting, but that’s rare.”

“You use the manoeuvre gear for that?”

“Yes. A few titans seem to have the power to block electronic signals. Those ones have to be fought hand to hand, using old-fashioned blades, like something out of the PC ages.”

“Doesn’t that put you at risk?”

“Yes, but we’re all highly trained. Mike’s our best warrior. Deaths are rare – fortunately the titans capable of signal blocking are usually slow.”

“But deaths do happen?”

“Occasionally. We had a young recruit called Marco, a couple of years back… But titan numbers on Kronos are falling fast. We estimate that the planet should be clear by this time next ESY.”

“And then what happens?”

Erwin sighed. “Normally we’d move on to the next planet with hostiles. But this system has provided so much habitable land that the Survey Corporation directors are talking about a temporary halt to further exploration. If that happens we’ll be assimilated into the garrisons on our home planets. For most of us, that’s Earth.”

“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

“Not really. Service in the Survey Corporation is one of the ways a Voter can win full citizenship. That’s much harder to achieve in the garrisons. And I have to admit I enjoy the training. I like being fit. That’s harder to maintain when you’re just patrolling walls all day long.”

“You look as though you’re in excellent condition.”

“Thanks. So do you, come to that. How long did you spend training?”

“Six hours a day. Running, free weights, and gymnastics.”

“Did you enjoy that?”

“Yes, I think so. I enjoyed the precision of the training exercises. I’ll have to make sure I maintain peak fitness now I’m out of the lab. I can train while you’re on duty, if sims are allowed in the gym unsupervised. I can’t see anything against it in the rules.”

“I suppose most sims don’t need to train. Their bodies either don’t change, or the new kind can morph into any form. And yes – I’ll ask Kenny Ackerman about getting you some kind of ID.”

“I have an ID. In the name of Levi Smith, for as long as you’re my user.”

“Ah.” Erwin wasn’t sure how he felt about having his name appended to that of the sim. Levi correctly interpreted his response as doubt, and asked, “Does that bother you?”

“I – No, not really. It just sounds odd, that’s all. I’ve never heard of a sim taking its user’s name before.”

“It doesn’t happen. I’m the first sim of my kind. All the others have manufacturing IDs, but those instantly identify the sim as non-human. My function is to pass as human, so I require a human-sounding ID.”

“That makes sense. In that case, I assume your ID has already been cleared for the general areas on the base, so you can shop and visit the gym?”

“Yes. And visit private quarters if I’m invited – with your permission, of course.”

“Why would you visit anyone else’s quarters?”

“I’m supposed to interact with people. In the lab they said I should try to make friends.”

“Friends?” Erwin’s eyebrows lifted. “Is that possible?”

“I don’t know. That’s part of what they want me to find out, I think. Whether people will treat me like a traditional sim, or more like a human.”

“But - is it possible for _you_ to have friends, in any meaningful way? How would you experience friendship?”

Levi looked down, frowning. “I’m not sure. I suppose, as a thing I _like_ – a preference for one individual over another.”

“But if your likes are randomly determined, wouldn’t that just mean that you’d make ‘friends’ with a random selection of the people you’d meet? That isn’t friendship. That’s just an algorithm at work.”

Levi said nothing. Erwin had the uncomfortable sense that he’d spoken out of turn, which was ridiculous. Still, he felt obliged to make some sort of concession to Levi’s feelings – even if those feelings were imaginary.

“Okay - you can visit other quarters if you’re invited. But I’m your – your user. I don’t want you offering any of your services to anyone else.”

Levi looked at him. “Thank you. I understand.”

“Good.”

Levi bowed his head and sat completely still, exactly as Erwin had first seen him. Erwin felt unaccountably awkward.

“Don’t sit like that,” he said, unease making him irritated. “People don’t sit still like that.”

Levi raised his head immediately. “How should I sit?” he asked.

“I don’t know! Normally!”

“Have I done something wrong?” Levi asked.

Erwin sighed. “No. It’s not anything you’ve done. It’s what you _are_ – and what you’re not. You’re not human. I don’t understand why the Reiss Company is trying to produce a sim that imitates a human so closely. I’m not sure what to do with you.”

“I’ll do anything you want,” Levi replied immediately. “Anything you can think of.”

Erwin sighed. “I know you will. It’s not your willingness that’s in question, although I do wonder how that’s supposed to work with your inbuilt preferences algorithm. What if it turns out there are some things – some sexual things, I mean – that you just really don’t like?”

“No, I don’t think that will happen,” Levi replied quickly. “In the lab they said that I was conditioned to like anything a user wanted to do with me.”

“But there are some things – ” Erwin began, remembering stories he’d heard about brothels that catered to various kinds of extreme desires. He stopped himself, not wanting to alarm Levi. After all, who could say where Levi would end up after his inevitable return to the lab?

“I’ve been conditioned for a wide range of common fetishes,” Levi said. “Of course, I’m not repairable in the same way a mechanically engineered sim is, so anything too violent could lead to permanent damage.”

Erwin felt profoundly uneasy at Levi’s matter-of-fact tone and his neutral expression when discussing his own potential abuse, even if, legally speaking, it was impossible to abuse a sim. “I – think this may have been a mistake,” Erwin decided. “I don’t think I can –”

“Please let me complete the trial period!” Levi interrupted. “From your responses so far, I don’t think you have any particularly violent desires, do you?”

“No, I don’t.”

“So these concerns aren’t relevant.”

“You didn’t like it earlier – my cum on your skin,” Erwin stated bluntly.

Levi opened his mouth to reply then closed it again. He shook his head slowly, frowning, apparently puzzled. “It – that wasn’t –”

“What? What was it? Or, what _wasn’t_ it?” Frustration made Erwin’s tone sharp. Levi stared at him, and it was hard not to read alarm in the sim’s wide-eyed gaze.

“I don’t know,” Levi admitted.

“You didn’t like it,” Erwin pushed.

Levi looked down at his hands. “No – I liked what we did. It was afterwards…”

“What do you mean?”

“While we were doing it, it was sex. I like sex. Afterwards, I – just wanted to be clean. I don’t like being dirty. That’s not a contradiction, is it?”

“No. But the change from one to the other was too abrupt.”

“So I should be careful not to express my dislike next time?”

Erwin was silent. Levi’s eyes were fixed on him. “Erwin?”

“That’s the problem,” Erwin said at last, shaking his head. “Sims don’t work that way. They don’t _have_ likes and dislikes. The thought that you’re concealing some kind of – disgust, when we fuck… That’s not what I want.”

“But I won’t feel that way when we fuck. I’ll like it. I want you to fuck me, Erwin – if that’s what you want.”

“ _Shit_.” Erwin threw his head back against the couch cushions and covered his face with his hand. “This was supposed to make me _less_ stressed!”

“I can help with that,” Levi said at once. Erwin felt movement on the couch beside him, and opened his eyes to find Levi kneeling on the rug in front of him, both hands on Erwin’s thighs. “You wanted to fuck my mouth, earlier,” Levi said, looking up into his eyes. “I could tell, by the way you were looking at me. Let me suck you off. That way there won’t be any mess, and we’ll both be happy.”

Erwin couldn’t fault the sim’s logic, and the thought of it was already making him hard, but too much about the situation was uncomfortable.

“No, not now,” he said, irritated by the conflict he was feeling. “Stand up, Levi. I want to be on my own.”

“Yes, Erwin,” Levi replied quietly, getting to his feet at once. “Where shall I wait?”

“I don’t know! Not here. In the corridor.”

“Okay.” Levi left the room, sliding the door shut behind him.

Erwin ordered the walls to show the reports of the day’s titan kill count, noting that, once again, Keiji and Mike had the high scores. He switched through a dozen Voter stations – wallball trials, two chess tournaments, a singing competition, three different episodes of _For Your Entertainment,_ and the first round of the current season’s _Science Search,_ which was introducing ten teenaged would-be geneticists, but nothing caught his attention. He was too aware of the thought of the sim standing silently in the corridor outside. _If it freaks you out too much…_ Sighing, Erwin got up and went out into the corridor. Levi was standing by the shoe store, head bowed, hands at his sides. He raised his head when Erwin appeared, looking at him expectantly. Erwin felt a surge of anger. “This is ridiculous! What the hell am I meant to do with you when you’re not cooking or cleaning or seeing to my sexual needs? How do I turn you off?”

“I don’t turn off, Erwin. I could go to sleep.”

“But I don’t have a room for you. And I’m still using the couch.”

Levi looked down at the rug he had cleaned and positioned so carefully. “I could try to sleep here. The temperature wouldn’t be optimum for sleep, but I could wait until I was tired. I do need to use the bathroom and take my sleep regulation medication, with your permission.”

Erwin frowned. “Well obviously you can’t sleep on the floor! Do whatever you need to do, and go to sleep on my bed. When I’m ready to sleep you’ll have to move to the couch. I’ll see about getting you a blanket or something tomorrow – for now you’ll have to use my coat, and one of the couch cushions as a pillow.”

“Yes, Erwin.”

Levi vanished into the bathroom, and Erwin went back to watching the Voter shows, but found he couldn’t focus enough to cast any votes even though he knew he was already down on his quotas. Hange had once shocked him by claiming that she sometimes upped her quotas by voting at random, but Erwin took his responsibilities as a Voter seriously and he couldn’t vote conscientiously when he was so distracted. He heard water running in the bathroom. Levi was clean, obedient, and very attractive, but the thought of sharing his quarters with the sim for three weeks was much more disturbing than Erwin had expected it to be. He went to the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee, returned to the living room to drink it, watched two episodes of _Cook Your Way to Central_ and finally decided to go to bed.

Levi was already asleep. Erwin lifted back the duvet to find the sim curled neatly on the left side of the bed, naked except for the grey shorts, one hand pillowing his cheek. Even in sleep the little frown lines beneath his dark brows didn’t vanish entirely, giving him a faintly worried look. Erwin bent over him, intending to shake him awake, but something made him hesitate. He could sort out alternative sleeping arrangements tomorrow – it seemed pointless to disturb the sim now.

Erwin got ready for bed, noting the new tooth gel in the bathroom, the second towel on the spare hook behind the door. When he climbed carefully into bed beside Levi he was pleased to find that the sim took up very little space. Erwin lay on his back, listening to Levi’s quiet breathing, feeling all the strangeness of the situation, and wondering how he was going to manage three weeks without his accustomed privacy.

 _I’ll never get to sleep like this!_ Erwin thought, turning away from Levi but constantly aware of his warmth, his presence in the bed. _This is unacceptable, even if…_

 _But – what he did with his feet! … And he can certainly cook… Huh – that onion… There_ is _something appealing…_

Erwin closed his eyes, his breathing falling into synch with Levi’s, as, much more easily than he’d expected, he drifted into sleep.


End file.
